


Good Days (Don't Last Long)

by EveningRose309



Series: The Sacrifice Verse [4]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of Espionage and Murder, Mentions of Military Work, Not Canon Compliant, Picnics, Vacation, mentions of World War II, these guys have not seen each other in months
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21717046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveningRose309/pseuds/EveningRose309
Summary: eu • pho • riaa feeling of ecstasy.a feeling that makes you briefly escape from this world.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Percival Graves/Gellert Grindelwald
Series: The Sacrifice Verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/999351
Kudos: 4





	Good Days (Don't Last Long)

**Author's Note:**

> I am officially done with multichapter fics. I cannot keep up with them, I'm too sporadic a writer to have a routine posting schedule. From now on this series will consist of disembodied ficlets. Sorry and thank you for putting up with me.

There were some days when time just stopped for Percival. Not in a bad sense, no- though sometimes time really _did_ stop for them, as though the seconds on the ground had turned into separate eternities in the fiery pits of hell and limbo -just in a way that made him forget _outside_ existed. That work was waiting for him at the office or that he had a meeting scheduled at the Capitol for 10:30 next Monday with the Danes. Days like that were few and far in between, though when they happened, he'd find himself missing them when they ended. 

Today was like that. Today was...something. He couldn't really find a word for it, nor did he really want to, not with _those_ fingers in his hair, carding and kneading and turning his head into mushy, doughy pudding at their touch. 

"Enjoying yourself, Graves?" a snicker of a voice giggled from somewhere beside them. 

Percival smirked. "Jealous Kid?" he answered, not bothering to open his eyes. 

He could hear the mischief in Ava's voice as she lamented, "Only that you've got your head on his lap and mine's up here in the cold."

Percival laughed. It'd been a while since he'd let himself do that. These days laughter was limited to forced grins and chuckles at summit meetings, mostly to keep the no-maj's at ease and the general's on their toes. He'd never let himself laugh at work, not in the past, certainly not now. 

But here? Now? In the middle of nowhere with the sun on their backs and a basket of cakes in the grass? He could cackle. He could snort and make all sorts of obscene noises if he wanted. The worst that could happen was him spooking a few horses, but they were used to them by now, and so were the rabbits, the sheep, the cows. If they'd brought the dogs, they'd be whooping alongside him, howling into sky, laughing in the face of every single shit delegate in court and wherever from the comforts of far-far-away-land. 

For now though he settled with a simple, albeit honest little thing that had the woman at his side swatting a breadstick at his leg and the man above him chuckling along to their antics. 

"You are aware I have two hands right Pretty?" Gellert added. Percival could hear the smile in his words almost as well as he could see it, even through the dark, a bright and disarming curve in his lips that no doubt bore the tobacco stained teeth that tasted like sugar when they kissed. He could almost taste them now, running his tongue over his lips, the leftovers from when they were setting up the picnic blanket, sneaking one over like some lovesick schoolboy. 

He felt it when Ava moved and butted her head between Gellert's shoulder blades, snorting; "Yes Papa, but I'm sure Percy here rather likes you all to himself."

"Right you are, Kiddo," he answered, the smirk on his face bleeding into a blissful smile. 

This. This was his heaven. His haven. Right here with Ava sneaking arms around Gellert like a jealous cat despite her words and his lover sitting back and letting them have his way with him. This was bliss. This was the thing they'd went without for months on end, his reward for running himself ragged through four cities trying to keep the peace, Ava's for the months spent on the front lines half buried in sand, dir, and snow, and Gellert's for the meetings, the hearings, the rallies over gunfire and the countless descents into the fields where their worlds collided, the muggles still untrusting and the wizards unruly. This was their reward for the hells they'd faced, the very war itself, and the new one boiling over France and Germany's borders, miles and miles and miles away. This was their haven, for however long that would be, until the phones rang and the owls swooped down on them, dragging them back to the pits where the only remnant of their time together was a picture on the wall or folded in the shirt pocket of a grimy uniform. 

For now though, they sat in bliss. In quiet. In plain sight and plain clothes on a plain, manless field all to themselves. 

Time however, time was cruel. When it stopped, it stopped for only a moment, and you knew those seconds were numbered, like a clogged pipe or cannon on the deck of an impending warship. And like those things, when it bursts, it pummeled you, merciless, taking with it all that it gave as you were left breathless against the mast. 

Percival knew their time was done the second Gellert's fingers tensed in his hair and his thighs shifted as he sat straighter. 

"Gell?" he sat up, opening his eyes and facing the dark lord whose shining eyes were now shadowed as they stared into the sky. 

"The sky's gone dark," was all Gellert said, distant, face blank, but- damn him, damn all of it -his words were the ticket. 

In a flash, Ava was gone, and that meant the bliss was officially, damnably over. Percival stared into Gellert's face, trying to find something, say something. In the end he found nothing, and hated himself for it, because Gellert's eyes going empty like that could only mean it was a vision and his visions always, _always_ meant _something_. Even if the sky was bright. Even if the sun were still shining and the horses were still there and the foals were frolicking and the rabbits, the cows, the-

"Kid!" he shouted. Shouted over the pretty picture, because the pretty picture was gone, and Ava's shoulders had now made it twenty marching foot falls away. Ava's bare, scarred shoulders, slung with the straps of that pretty yellow sundress Bill had gotten her for Christmas. The sundress she always wore, not for lack of having others, but because _that_ Christmas had been the first they'd spent as a real, honest family, standing by the fire, laughing along like real people and not pawns in the war games they played. 

"I'm calling home!" she answered back, not stopping, because stopping would mean hesitation and want and those were not things a soldier should have. A general. A killer. 

He knew what her words meant though. Calling home, she was calling Vinda. First Vinda, to check if there really was something- who were they kidding? -then her husband to say she wouldn't be coming home for dinner and to tell the boys that she loved them. She would call Bill for that and to get her suitcase ready, the one Percival knew was packed to the brim with knives and guns and bullets, which she didn't take on this trip because Gellert hated seeing them on her. 

Percival watched her leave, with his hands in Gellert's and squeezing as tightly as he could. A goodbye of their own, because Ava's shoulders would soon be covered with a vest and a uniform, and soon after, his would too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all feel free to scream at my ass on Tumblr. The address is @evening-rose-309. The box is open, so go right ahead.


End file.
